Refining genetic boundaries for Agassiz’s desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) in the western Sonoran Desert: the influence of the Coachella Valley on gene flow among populations in southern California

Understanding the influence of geographic features on the evolutionary history and population structure of a species can assist wildlife managers in delimiting genetic units (GUs) for conservation and management. Landscape features including mountains, low elevation depressions, and even roads can influence connectivity and gene flow among Agassiz’s desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) populations. Substantial changes in the landscape of the American Southwest occurred during the last six million years (including the formation of the Gulf of California and the lower Colorado River), which shaped the distribution and genetic structuring of tortoise populations. The area northwest of the Gulf of California is occupied by the Salton Trough, including the Coachella Valley at its northern end. Much of this area is below sea level and unsuitable as tortoise habitat, thus forming a potential barrier for gene flow. We assessed genetic relationships among three tortoise populations separated by the Coachella Valley. Two adjacent populations were on the east side of the valley in the foothills of the Cottonwood and Orocopia mountains separated by Interstate 10. The third population, Mesa, was located about 87 km away in the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains at the far northwestern tip of the valley. The Cottonwood and Orocopia localities showed genetic affiliation with the adjacent Colorado Desert GU immediately to the east, and the Mesa population exhibited affiliation with both the Southern Mojave and Colorado Desert GUs, despite having a greater geographic distance (0.5x–1.5x greater) to the Colorado Desert GU. The genetic affiliation with the Colorado Desert GU suggests that the boundary for that GU needs to be substantially extended to the west to include the desert tortoise populations around the Coachella Valley. Their inclusion in the Colorado Desert GU may benefit these often overlooked populations when recovery actions are considered

The Spitzer 24μm Photometric Light Curve of the Eclipsing M-dwarf Binary GU Boötis

We present a carefully controlled set of Spitzer 24 μm MIPS time series observations of the low mass eclipsing binary star GU Boötis (GU Boo). Our data cover three secondary eclipses of the system: two consecutive events and an additional eclipse six weeks later. The study’s main purpose is the long wavelength characterization of GU Boo’s light curve, independent of limb darkening and less sensitive to surface features such as spots. Its analysis allows for independent verification of the results of optical studies of GU Boo. Our mid-infrared results show good agreement with previously obtained system parameters. In addition, the analysis of light curves of other objects in the field of view serves to characterize the photometric stability and repeatability of Spitzer’s MIPS-24 at flux densities between approximately 300–2,000μJy. We find that the light curve root mean square about the median level falls into the 1–4% range for flux densities higher than 1 mJy

Higgs bosons may be sneutrinos

In a GUT scenario with unconventional supersymmetry, Higgs bosons can be sneutrinos. The next few years are full of promise for historic discoveries in high-energy physics. One expects that both a Higgs boson It was proposed long ago that Higgs fields might be superpartners of lepton fields Recently we proposed a very different scenario, in which both Yukawa couplings and supersymmetry have unconventional forms (1) Yukawa couplings. Suppose that the first stage of symmetry-breaking at the GUT scale involves a Higgs field φ GU T which is the superpartner of the charge-conjugate of a right-handed neutrino field ν R . Then φ GU T has a lepton number of -1 and an R-parity This picture is compatible with the minimal scheme [28] More specifically, there are 16 scalar boson fields, in each of 3 generations, which are superpartners of the 16 fermion fields per generation in a standard SO(10) theory. There are then 3 scalar bosons which are superpartners associated with right-handed neutrinos, and φ GU T is a linear combination of these 3 bosonic fields. Suppose also that symmetry-breaking at the electroweak scale involves a Higgs field φ EW which is the superpartner of the charge-conjugate of a left-handed lepton field: In the simplest description, ν L is the electron neutrino and e L is the left-handed field of the electron. Finally, suppose that a typical fermion field below the GUT scale has an effective Yukawa coupling with the form where λ 0 is dimensionless and φ † GU T φ GU T ∼ m 2 GU T with m GU T ∼ 10 13 TeV. One then has a Dirac mass (There is another set of effective Yukawa couplings involving the charge-conjugate Higgs fields, of course.) Since both φ GU T and φ EW have a lepton number of -1, φ † GU T φ EW conserves lepton number. The same is obviously true of the operator in v 2 /2 = φ † EW φ EW , which determines the masses of the W boson

K-Space at TRECVID 2008

In this paper we describe K-Space’s participation in TRECVid 2008 in the interactive search task. For 2008 the K-Space group performed one of the largest interactive video information retrieval experiments conducted in a laboratory setting. We had three institutions participating in a multi-site multi-system experiment. In total 36 users participated, 12 each from Dublin City University (DCU, Ireland), University of Glasgow (GU, Scotland) and Centrum Wiskunde and Informatica (CWI, the Netherlands). Three user interfaces were developed, two from DCU which were also used in 2007 as well as an interface from GU. All interfaces leveraged the same search service. Using a latin squares arrangement, each user conducted 12 topics, leading in total to 6 runs per site, 18 in total. We officially submitted for evaluation 3 of these runs to NIST with an additional expert run using a 4th system. Our submitted runs performed around the median. In this paper we will present an overview of the search system utilized, the experimental setup and a preliminary analysis of our results

'Chan e chleachd bhith an cabhsair chlach': Am Bàrd Gàidhlig 's am Baile Mòr bhon 17mh Linn chun an 20mh

Is gann a gheibhear iomradh air Glaschu ann am bàrdachd Ghàidhlig ron naoidheamh linn deug. Mar a bhiodh dùil, ’s e baile na cumhachd ’s na h-uaisleachd gu sear a tha a’ toilltinn an iomraidh as motha. Ach cluinnear ann am mith-òran bho 1645 gu bheil ‘Glaschu bheag a’ dol na lasair’ (Campbell 1977, 136);1 tha Gilleasbaig na Ceapaich anns an aon linn ag ainmeachadh ‘Eaglais Ghlaschu’ aig toiseach na liosta de rudan fìor a chunnaic e (MacPherson 1868, 46); agus ann am mith-òran eile, is dòcha bhon t-seachdamh linn deug, tha foirmle molaidh ri cluinntinn anns an iomradh air ‘Glaschu nam buadh’ (Campbell 1981, 42)

Adjuvant vs. salvage radiation therapy in men with high-risk features after radical prostatectomy: Survey of North American genitourinary expert radiation oncologists

INTRODUCTION: The management of patients with high-risk features after radical prostatectomy (RP) is controversial. Level 1 evidence demonstrates that adjuvant radiation therapy (RT) improves survival compared to no treatment; however, it may overtreat up to 30% of patients, as randomized clinical trials (RCTs) using salvage RT on observation arms failed to reveal a survival advantage of adjuvant RT. We, therefore, sought to determine the current view of adjuvant vs. salvage RT among North American genitourinary (GU) radiation oncology experts. METHODS: A survey was distributed to 88 practicing North American GU physicians serving on decision-making committees of cooperative group research organizations. Questions pertained to opinions regarding adjuvant vs. salvage RT for this patient population. Treatment recommendations were correlated with practice patterns using Fisher's exact test. RESULTS: Forty-two of 88 radiation oncologists completed the survey; 23 (54.8%) recommended adjuvant RT and 19 (45.2%) recommended salvage RT. Recommendation of active surveillance for Gleason 3+4 disease was a significant predictor of salvage RT recommendation (p=0.034), and monthly patient volume approached significance for recommendation of adjuvant over salvage RT; those seeing <15 patients/month trended towards recommending adjuvant over salvage RT (p=0.062). No other demographic factors approached significance. CONCLUSIONS: There is dramatic polarization among North American GU experts regarding optimal management of patients with high-risk features after RP. Ongoing RCTs will determine whether adjuvant RT improves survival over salvage RT. Until then, the almost 50/50 division seen from this analysis should encourage practicing clinicians to discuss the ambiguity with their patients

Comasan Labhairt ann an Gàidhlig: Frèam-obrach airson ionnsachadh na Gàidhlig le inbhich

Is e aon dhe na h-amasan ath-bheothachaidh cànain aig Bòrd na Gàidhlig clàran-tomhais Gàidhlig airson luchd-ionnsachaidh inbheach agus an tidsearan a chruthachadh. An-dràsta, tha luchd-rannsachaidh air a’ phròiseact ‘Comasan Labhairt ann an Gàidhlig’ (CLAG) a’ leasachadh feadhainn dhe na clàran-tomhais sin, a tha a’ dèiligeadh ri cainnt. Anns an taisbeanadh seo, bheir mi cunntas dhen adhartas a thathar air dèanamh gu ruige seo air a’ phròiseact. Tha na clàran-tomhais stèidhichte air corpas a chaidh a thogail ann an 2015. Rinn 96 luchd-labhairt na Gàidhlig – 80 luchd-ionnsachaidh agus 16 fileantaich – eacarsaichean cainnt, a’ gabhail a-steach agallamh neo-fhoirmeil, gnìomh sgeulachd, agus gnìomh airson structaran gràmarach fhaighinn. Tha tidsearan Gàidhlig do dh’inbhich air dàta a’ chorpais a mheasadh, a’ cleachdadh an t-Siostam Chumanta Eòrpaich airson Measadh Ionnsachadh Chànan (SCEMIC – ‘Common European Framework of Reference for Language Learning’). Chòdaicheadh an dàta airson tuairisgeul mhionaideach sgilean cànain a thoirt gu ìre, a’ gabhail a-steach feartan fileantas, ceartachd, agus fuaimneachadh. Chleachdadh measaidhean nan tidsearan, còmhla ri nam mion-tuairisgeulan, airson dealbh a dhèanamh dhe sgilean cànan gach neach-labhairt sa chorpas. Ceangailear na clàran-tomhais leis an t-SCEMIC, agus le frèam-obrach ionnsachadh Gàidhlig an Ùghdarrais Theisteanas na h-Alba. Crìochnaichidh mi le tuairisgeul air na ceumannan a tha romhainn airson frèam-obrach ChLAG a thoirt gu buil

A Phase I Randomized Placebo Controlled Trial of the Safety of 3% SPL7013 Gel (VivaGel®) in Healthy Young Women Administered Twice Daily for 14 Days

To assess the safety of VivaGel® used vaginally twice daily for 14 days among healthy, sexually-abstinent women, aged 18-24 years in the USA and Kenya.Randomized placebo controlled trial.Participants were randomized 2∶1, VivaGel to placebo. Safety was assessed by comparing genitourinary (GU) adverse events (AEs), colposcopy findings, vaginal lactobacilli and laboratory abnormalities by arm.Fifty-four women were enrolled; 35 in the VivaGel arm and 19 in the placebo arm. Twenty-six (74%) and 10 (53%) women reported taking all doses of VivaGel and placebo, respectively. No grade 3 or 4 AEs, or serious AEs occurred. Twenty-five (71%) participants in the VivaGel arm compared to 10 (53%) participants in the placebo arm had at least one grade 1 or 2 GU AE associated with product use (RR = 1.4, 95% CI 0.8-2.2). All seven grade 2 GU AEs associated with product use occurred among four women in the VivaGel arm. Vulvar and cervical erythema, cervical lesions, symptomatic BV, urinary frequency and metrorrhagia were more common in the VivaGel arm than the placebo arm. Twenty-nine (83%) participants in the VivaGel arm had a colposcopic finding compared to 10 (53%) participants in the placebo arm (RR = 1.6, 95%CI = 1.0-2.5). Two women in the VivaGel arm prematurely discontinued product use themselves due to a reported GU AE. Persistence of H₂O₂-producing and non-producing lactobacilli did not differ by study arm.GU AEs and colposcopic findings consistent with mild epithelial irritation and inflammation occurred more commonly among women in the VivaGel arm.ClinicalTrials.gov NCT003311032

Comasan Labhairt ann an Gàidhlig: Frèam-obrach airson ionnsachadh na Gàidhlig le inbhich

Is e aon dhe na h-amasan ath-bheothachaidh cànain aig Bòrd na Gàidhlig clàran-tomhais Gàidhlig airson luchd-ionnsachaidh inbheach agus an tidsearan a chruthachadh. An-dràsta, tha luchd-rannsachaidh air a’ phròiseact ‘Comasan Labhairt ann an Gàidhlig’ (CLAG) a’ leasachadh feadhainn dhe na clàran-tomhais sin, a tha a’ dèiligeadh ri cainnt. Anns an taisbeanadh seo, bheir mi cunntas dhen adhartas a thathar air dèanamh gu ruige seo air a’ phròiseact. Tha na clàran-tomhais stèidhichte air corpas a chaidh a thogail ann an 2015. Rinn 96 luchd-labhairt na Gàidhlig – 80 luchd-ionnsachaidh agus 16 fileantaich – eacarsaichean cainnt, a’ gabhail a-steach agallamh neo-fhoirmeil, gnìomh sgeulachd, agus gnìomh airson structaran gràmarach fhaighinn. Tha tidsearan Gàidhlig do dh’inbhich air dàta a’ chorpais a mheasadh, a’ cleachdadh an t-Siostam Chumanta Eòrpaich airson Measadh Ionnsachadh Chànan (SCEMIC – ‘Common European Framework of Reference for Language Learning’). Chòdaicheadh an dàta airson tuairisgeul mhionaideach sgilean cànain a thoirt gu ìre, a’ gabhail a-steach feartan fileantas, ceartachd, agus fuaimneachadh. Chleachdadh measaidhean nan tidsearan, còmhla ri nam mion-tuairisgeulan, airson dealbh a dhèanamh dhe sgilean cànan gach neach-labhairt sa chorpas. Ceangailear na clàran-tomhais leis an t-SCEMIC, agus le frèam-obrach ionnsachadh Gàidhlig an Ùghdarrais Theisteanas na h-Alba. Crìochnaichidh mi le tuairisgeul air na ceumannan a tha romhainn airson frèam-obrach ChLAG a thoirt gu buil